On Israel 60th Birthday Bush Tells Iran, Syria, No Appeasement On Terrorism

On Israel 60th Birthday Bush Tells Iran, Syria, No Appeasement On Terrorism

Photo: Joel Leyden / Israel News Agency

By Joel Leyden
Israel News Agency

Jerusalem ----- May 17, 2008 ....... US President George W. Bush will leave Saudi Arabia this morning for Egypt after having visited Israel for its 60th birthday celebrations.

Upon his historic arrival at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, Bush stated: "Israel is our strongest friend and ally in the Middle East. Our two nations both faced great challenges when they were founded. And our two nations have both relied on the same principles to help us succeed. We built strong democracies to protect the freedoms given to us by an Almighty God."

President George W. Bush was greeted by Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israel President Shimon Peres, several other Israel dignitaries and an Israel Defense Forces 50-person strong orchestra in a colorful and warm red carpet welcome.

Bush was told by Peres: "Welcome to the new Israel: Three thousand years old, and going on sixty."

Bush spent three days in Israel visiting the Facing Tomorrow Conference, the Knesset and Masada before flying off yesterday for Saudi Arabia.

Just hours before Bush's Blue and White Air Force One arrived in Israel, a Grad type rocket produced in Iran and launched from Gaza slammed into a shopping mall in the southern Israel city of Ashkelon.

Fourteen civilians were wounded. Three people suffered severe wounds, two were moderately injured and five suffered light injuries.

Two women and a young girl were seriously wounded, Magan David Adom reported. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.

Ashkelon is a port city of 120,000 people located about 10 miles north of the Gaza Strip. The Iran rocket which hit the shopping mall was only one of at least 20 Katyusha-type rockets to have rocked the city.

Israel President Shimon Peres responded by saying that it was Hamas' actions in Gaza and Hezbollah's in Lebanon which are holding up the establishment of a Palestinian state. Shimon Peres, the winner of a Nobel Peace Price, went on to remind the world that Israel could have been living in peace with a Palestine state if the Palestinians would have accepted a state back in 1948. But rather than living in peace with the Jewish population which has a historic roots going back to the first and second temples in Jerusalem, Masada and Gamla, the Palestinians chose to join invading Arab armies with the promise of taking all Jewish land.

"As Iran calls for wiping Israel off the map, inciting hate and violence against the Jewish people, those in Teheran are actually delaying the establishment of Palestine and keeping children in Gaza in poverty," said one participant at the Facing Tomorrow Conference in Jerusalem. "Iran is doing exactly the same thing that Arab leaders did with the minds of those Arabs who lived here in 1948, giving them false hope of securing all the land and keeping these people in poverty. It is not Israel which is oppressing the Palestinian people today, it is Iran and Syria."

This is President George Bush's second trip to the middle east in five months, and his second to Israel as president.

After leaving Israel yesterday, Bush visited Saudi Arabia, where he and his delegation addressed the high price of oil. Many in the President's delegation questioned leaders in Saudi Arabia about their neglect in assisting Palestinians who live in poverty while those in Saudi Arabia eat caviar, drive Rolls Royce and fly off to their homes in France, England and the Caribbean for vacations.

Jewish leaders in Israel appeared more concerned about the quality of life for those living in Gaza and the West Bank and truly advocating the establishment of Palestine in contrast to those in Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria.

Many Jewish leaders at Israel 60th birthday Facing Tomorrow Peace Conference in Jerusalem, including Israel UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman, ADL Director Abe Foxman, Sir Ronald Cohen and advertising giant Maurice Levy stated that Israel is ready to assist in investing in a state named Palestine. But that any investment in a future entity called Palestine could only be realized when terror organizations such as Iran backed Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah which call for Israel's total destruction, lay down their weapons.

"As Iran calls for wiping Israel off the map, inciting hate and violence against the Jewish people, those in Teheran are actually delaying the establishment of Palestine and keeping children in Gaza in poverty," said one participant to Facing Tomorrow Conference. "Iran is doing exactly the same thing that Arab leaders did with the minds of those Arabs who lived here in 1948, giving them false hope of securing all the land and keeping these people in poverty. It is not Israel which is oppressing the Palestinian people today, it is Iran and Syria."

George Bush used his interviews in both Israel and Saudi Arabia to criticize Hamas which controls Gaza and opposes recognition of Israel as a country.

"Their vision is to destroy Israel," Bush told Israel reporters. "How about a vision that says we want to coexist with Israel so we can raise our children in peace? Now, I'm sure, people say, 'Bush, oh man, he sounds hopelessly idealistic.' But the truth of the matter is, in order for peace to be secure, it's that kind of idealism that has got to prevail."

In his speech to the Knesset, Bush spoke about his visit to Masada and repeated the Israel pledge, saying, "Masada shall never fall again."

At the same time President George W. Bush predicted that Israel's 120th birthday would find it alongside a Palestinian state and in an all-democratic neighborhood free of today's oppression, restrictions on freedom and extremist Muslim movements.

During a speech to the Knesset, the Israel parliament, Bush limited his mention of Palestinians to just one sentence. "The Palestinian people will have the homeland they have long dreamed of and deserved, a democratic state that is governed by law, and respects human rights, and rejects terror," he said.

The President stated his opposition to negotiating with “terrorists and radicals,” and, invoking Nazi Germany, rejecting “the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

Shortly after the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, then Israel Prime Minister Arik Sharon warned the United States not to "appease the Arabs at Israel's expense." Sharon made reference to the catastrophic consequences of European democracies appeasing Hitler prior to World War II, specifically citing the Munich Pact of 1938 which ceded Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland to Germany: ''Don't repeat the terrible mistakes of 1938, when the enlightened democracies in Europe decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for a comfortable, temporary solution. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia.''

Bush began his speech declaring with a broad and warm smile:"Yom Atzmaut Sameach," or "Happy Independence Day." President Bush denounced anti-Semitism "in all forms," and stated that "Israel has a right to defend itself".

In reaction to the speech, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said: "Bush's recognition of Palestine as the national homeland for the Jews is a very dangerous act of discrimination and racism, obliterating the right of return for Palestinians and establishing a genocide at the expense of Palestinian rights." He added: "We want to tell Bush, Israel is not going to survive another 60 years. Israel's end is drawing closer, and it will take less than 60 years to achieve it."

"Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away," said Bush. "This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of our enemies, and America rejects it utterly. Israel's population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you."

Bush's trip to Egypt follows a one-day visit to Riyadh, where he met King Abdullah and secured a promise of a Saudi Arabia increase in oil output in response to his repeated appeals for help in easing record world oil prices

President Bush will meet Egypt President Hosni Mubarak and Afghan President Hamid Karzai as well as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas today. Bush will meet with Jordan King Abdullah, Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and Iraq officials on Sunday at an international economic forum.

The above text was edited and SEO optimized for the Internet by Joel Leyden.